dis- and that, v.3

Well, 

considering I'm in writer's block 

                           (or something like that)

on 4 different posts 

                           (3 of them politically inspired),

I'll just do one of these babies instead. 

dis- and that, volume 3.

I developed a dislike for our furnace last week, because I wished spring had sprung.

I DO LIKE this week's forecast.  77° on Thursday?  Yes, please!

I dislike when the basil I try to grow dies.  I'm on attempt #3.  

I do like basil.  BEST-HERB-EVER.

I dislike saying "herb" - "h" pronunced - versus "herb" without said "h" sound.

I do like my husband...love my husband...even though he says "herb" with a hard "h." 

I dislike being on the bottom floor of our apartment.  I think my basil would be fairing better right now if we were both south-facing and up a floor or two. 

I do like that we can just walk up a half-flight of stairs to get outside.  

I dislike fatigue.

I do like energetic fun!

I dislike washing dishes,

but I do like doing dishes if my food turns out like this:

strawberry pie! 
plus some pie crust extras with sugar and cinnamon.

tasty pasta dish i threw together! 

with bacon...oh, yes. 

yum.  

I do definitely like "yum."

I don't dislike doing dishes when the dish ends up being delectable.

I also don't dislike doing dishes when the smoke alarm doesn't go off. 

If you don't like this small font, let me know.  I like it, but I don't want to cause eye-strain for anyone who reads this. 

And if you're at the bottom of this post, thanks for reading. :)

tag, I'm it...again!

The wonderful Allie Wulfkuhle tagged me (I think!), so here you go:

RULES:
1. Open your first photo folder on your computer.
2. Scroll to the 10th picture.
3. Post that picture and the story behind it.
4. Tag 5 or more people.

Well, this is from my wedding day.  It was an AWESOME day, and I just got this dress on when my sister took this picture.  She was my maid of honor, and while that was more-or-less decided for us by my mom on a car ride back in the day, I wouldn't have had it any other way.  I was so prone to nerves that whole day, even though I knew I was making the right move with the awesome man I was about to marry!  I just had the jitters pop up every time there was a quiet moment.   This quiet moment, however, was pretty calm, and if my sister weren't standing there, this picture wouldn't have happened. 


So, I tag

Jen S.,
Kristen M.,
Heidi H.,
Kaci S.,
Cathy S.,
and
Heather J.!

nahm, nahm, nahm....

nahm...

tonight, 

we ate 

ACORN SQUASH.  

So, SO, so good.  

Feistiness for me (at the moment) is being content only when things are great, 

and getting feisty and doing something about things that aren't. 

Well, one thing I've been trying to be feisty about is my eating and cooking. 

If you knew me in daycare, you knew I 

rivaled just about every kid there for 

the pickiest eater award.

I was always hungry, but my inherited stubbornness*

meant lots of hours of going without food. 

It's not a daycare provider's responsibility to make

a kid LOVE whatever is in front of them. 

My daycare lady 

(Daycare Joanie is what we called her)

always made me at least try what was in front of me. 

If she were my primary adult influence, 

I would have

actually LIKED vegetables before age 23, 

which is when I met my husband. 

Daycare Joanie wasn't my main parental influence, 

so I was very much a meat and potatoes girl. 

That being said, 

if it weren't for my mom and dad, 

I probably wouldn't like good, lake-caught fish,

nor have an affinity for both baking and consuming

confections from the oven. 

Anyways, when I met my husband,

I was a pretty plane Jane when it came to my eating habits. 

Then, well...

fast forward almost 4 years

(since we met, that is),

and I'm eating squash.  

Not only squash, but 

sushi

nagiri

spinach pesto

mushrooms (MOREL SEASON IS COMING...)

vegetarian sandwiches with avocado and muenster cheese and mango salsa...

the list goes on and on. 

So, while I don't have a picture of the 

squash for you 

(it was a little too delicous to take 

a picture of prior to devouring, I guess),

I will tell you that

Paula Dean has a mean recipe for acorn squash,

sans the maple syrup.  I just didn't want to add that.

So anyway, that's a little feisty moment, 

albeit not really that big of a deal.  

To me, however, 

food can become a very big deal.  

I get quite cranky when I'm hungry for too long,

and venturing into gastronomical territories unknown

is a big, big deal for me. 

Let me know if you've done this sort of thing as well,

or if you've had some small victory

in your life that

was a big deal for you, too. 

*Inherited stubbornness, as explained to me

by my parents during my youth:

"Laura, you're being so stubborn.  You get that from your mom.  That's the German in you."

...

"Ugh, Laura, quit being so stubborn.  You get that from your dad, I can tell."

...

"Laura, Laura, why are you so stubborn about this?  You must have got that from - 

"No, Mom and Dad, I got it from BOTH of you!  

You're both stubborn, and you're BOTH German!"  :)

...

At least that stubborn personality trait kept me out of trouble whilst in college...

that and God. 

This might not be righteous anger...but maybe.

It makes me 

irate

Irate

I-RATE

when I see or hear of something being done

to someone who is either

powerless

or

unprepared  

    to prevent it. 

oh, OH so IRATE.

Please, God, make me so aware

that if I ever feel tempted

to make fun of

or demean

or intentionally puff myself up over

or again fail to stand up for

those who are significantly less privileged that I am,

particularly those who are

foreign to this country and are earnestly,

         truly earnestly trying to make good for their loved ones...*

or those who have no ability to live independently

         and are completely reliant on others for a safe, functional life,

You would so bluntly deliver me such an

incredible and unmistakable

kick in the pants**,

that I'd be forever humbled and irreversibly changed in my ways.

Thanks, both in advance and in retrospect.***

* Who in this country HASN'T come, in some way, from this background?!

I am not a proponent of illegal immigration, but I see it as incredibly honorable to sacrifice life and limb to try to work for the good of one's family. 

** I'd use another word here if honorable to God,

considering this is how strong I feel about it.

*** After actually reading this post I just wrote, it's a little scary to ask for such a thing from God.  He delivered on my request for my husband ("God, please don't let me date anyone again until it's my husband," circa 2004).  A grace-filled kick in the pants would be preferred, although grace-filled is not never deserved.

Fong's Pizza: Party In My Mouth!

I don't have much to say right now,

and that's a little uncharacteristic as of late, I guess.

But I'm going to say this: 

My senior year of high school involved one 

fairly awesome 

English/Humanities teacher of mine. 

Mr. Himlie.  

Not only was he a good teacher, 

he was a great story teller and a terrific conservationist. 

...and apparently, conversationist is a word, according to Mozilla Firefox. 

So,  when he described Fazolli's bread sticks as a "party in [his] mouth," 

that phrase stuck with me for life. 

On Saturday Night, John and I went to a place called 

www.metromix.com

Many Asian-influenced pizzas plus some influenced by classic American comfort food, like a baked potato.  

If you're ever in DSM, head over to 4th Street downtown and get yourself a slice

of the most intricately composed grab rangoon pizza you shall ever have. 

And don't think this pizza is going to be a cream cheese fest with a ton of sweet and sour sauce.  

It has an amazing balance with some awesome crispy wonton pieces on top.  

SO good, 

and you won't regret going out 

of your comfort zone

at

all

!!!

It was a party in my mouth.

Yes indeed!

parenthood.

"Parenthood."

It's what I'm watching right now. 

I've been REALLY intrigued by this series ever since it started premiering during the Olympics. 

So far, it's pretty good.  Wish they wouldn't have included ALL the previews in this first episode...

kind of like I watched it already.  

However, it's pretty good even with the almost-spoilers.  The previews make sense now, and there were definitely some unexpected twists that will clearly shape the rest of the season.  

Boy, a big ol' epiphany just hit me (and it's happening in real time; this wasn't written yesterday!): 

Getting a bunch of previews of parenthood your entire life and still needing to brace yourself for unexpected twists...

Isn't that how parenthood starts? 

Most of us don't really understand it this way when we are young, but we were raised for 18+ years by some sort of parent/s

(as literal or figurative as that may be), 

and we've seen what it's like. 

Yet we have no idea what those unexpected twists will be until we experience it first-hand. 

I mean, I'm certain my future children will be quite tall, yet there's definitely a sneaky average-height trait in both John's and my family that could strike at any time. That's minor, I know, but it would be quite unexpected. 

And there's been plenty of unexpected twists in my own parents' experience, both with each other and with me and my sister.  Who would have thought she and I would have had such different teenage-lives.  Who would have thought I would have joined a sorority, that she would have bought her own pet dog, that my mom would have finished her BA in between Ash and I, or that my dad would have gotten us to eat something often that many people hate (fish).  And certainly no one would have guessed that the day after my sister's first Christmas on earth would our lives have been altered forever by cancer striking our dad. 

I've been watching this show for an hour. 

I've been watching...no, witnessing parenthood my entire life.  

I'm a product of it.  

We all are.

So, I hoping to soon be doing some of the parenting myself in the future.  

I hope I can conjure up all the lessons I learned back in the day - and now - and be a good parent with my husband, 

when that time comes.  

And being that I stayed at my client's place tonight five or ten minutes longer than usual just because her seven-or-so month old niece was there being cuter than anything I've seen in a good long time, 

I'd come to think that being a mom would be something that I'm inclined to do pretty soon...

God willing.  

March on, lil' lamb.

In like a lamb...

out like a lion?

I hope the lion is just one big thunderbolt followed by a quick sprinkle and LOTS of sun.  

No floods, please.  No floods. 

I've got a lot more to say, but I figured I'd leave it for a time when I have a little more clarity.  

Look for something tomorrow. 

In the mean time, 

a little something I took

on this first day of March: